# Presidential Election Data

## Overview

This directory contains county-level U.S. presidential election results used for political context covariates.

## Files

### CQ_Voting_Pres_Gen_by_county_1920_2020.xlsx

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Source** | CQ Press Voting and Elections Collection |
| **URL** | https://library.cqpress.com/elections/ |
| **Unit of observation** | County-election year |
| **Geographic coverage** | All U.S. counties |
| **Time coverage** | 1920-2020 presidential elections |

**Key Variables:**
- County FIPS code
- State
- Year
- Democratic votes
- Republican votes
- Third party votes
- Other votes
- Total votes

**Notes:**
- Accessed via institutional subscription (CQ Press)
- Historical county boundaries may differ from current

### Pres_Election_Data_2024.xlsx

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Source** | [Source TBD - verify actual source] |
| **Unit of observation** | County |
| **Geographic coverage** | All U.S. counties |
| **Time coverage** | 2024 presidential election |

**Key Variables:**
- County identifiers
- 2024 vote totals by party

## Usage

Primary analysis uses 2020 election data from the CQ file. Processing script: `R/covariates/pres_elec_2020.R`

**Derived variables:**
- `demshare` - Democratic vote share (all votes)
- `repshare` - Republican vote share (all votes)  
- `demshare_major` - Democratic two-party vote share
- `repshare_major` - Republican two-party vote share

## Citation

CQ Press. "Voting and Elections Collection." Congressional Quarterly Press. [Access date]

